Rochambeau


ROCHAMBEAU – named after the transatlantic ocean liner that carried Marcel Duchamp to NY in 1915. The major theme of ROCHAMBEAU is Artificial Intelligence – A. I. and how it has been and will be transforming our lives.

The most urgent questions we are looking at are: How can A.I. achieve a consciousness? How can A.I. turn from an ‚object‘ into the ‚subject‘? How does A.I. influence its own creator – the human, biological intelligence? How does it interfere with / simplify / confuse / steer human interactions – up to the point where completely new ways of interaction are being created? IT-scientists, neurologists, psychologists and sociologists are tackling those questions with pressing intensity. ROCHAMBEAU is reflecting this discussion in 5 scenarios:

1.) What happens if we treat bots and algorithms as ‚objets trouvés‘ and re-contextualize them?

2.) What if we exclusively talked or spoke like our algorithmic typing suggestions, adding meaning and expression?

3.) How does the simultaneousness of our time change our perception,our concentration, our patience: How does it change our experience of the world around us?

4.) How does the constant interaction with our video and photo image change our vocabulary and our body language? What does it do to our connection to other humans?

5.) What does the filter do to transform our sense of the real?

And – the overall question remains: What are the chances, the possibilities, the beauty hidden in this new, virtual parallel universe?


From March 8-18 2017 a first developing workshop on ROCHAMBEAU was held at Uferstudios Berlin. During this period, set- and costume mock-ups were created. Possible video settings and interactions between live and video were developed. Layering of live and video was experimented with to establish a structure of time and overlap.


information deck


Concept & Direction: Tilman Hecker

Composition: Davíð Brynjar Franzson

Choreography: Lynsey Peisinger

Sets & Costumes: Marte Eknæs & Nicolau Vergueiro

Video: Thilo Schmidt

Performance: Ivan Cheng, MJ Harper, Viktoriya Muhamejanova, Lynsey Peisinger, Frank Willens


photographs Axel Lambrette